Friday, September 11, 2009

Compulsive Communicator

I have become one of those people. You might call me a workaholic. One ex-boyfriend did. I prefer to think of myself as a compulsive communicator.

I have two cellphones. One is for my personal life and one is for work. I didn’t want my work to pay for my calls to my family in Canada and I also wanted to be able to leave my work phone at home on the weekends. Okay, admittedly I have not left it behind yet but I will someday!

Some days I find myself at Peets or Starbucks in the middle of a morning as I run between offsite meetings. Usually at 10 or 11 AM the buck is a-hopping! People are sitting around, sipping coffee and a small few might be chit chatting. A lot are reading a paper or working on their Mac. It is almost always a Mac.

WHO are these people? I am a bit jealous as they sip long, frothy, creamy lattes while I do a few shots of espresso to get me to my next appointment. HOW come they seem so relaxed? Don’t these people have jobs to get back to? WHY do they have all this time for coffee!?

The truth is I am a jealous but I am also addicted to being connected and yes, I admit, addicted to my work. Being relaxed and not in touch or communicating in some way is strange to me. It’s like I am a fish and the Internet and 3G network have become my ocean. If I get disconnected I can’t happily swim around and I start flopping about gasping for air.

I get antsy if I am away from my cellphone for more than a few minutes. I get annoyed if someone does not respond to email within a 24 hour period. My sister doesn’t check email everyday – to me that is absolutely crazy. It makes me nuts! Then there is a voicemail. If I leave you a voicemail and you love me please call me back. Otherwise I think you are dead in a ditch somewhere. Really, that is what I think. I am not kidding. So, please call me back!